Maggie May? I prefer Theresa May! Sir Rod Stewart on the PM's Hot Legs (yes, really), Sailing close to the wind with Prince William and why, at 72, he still drinks like a Young Turk

He famously sang about how Maggie May stole his heart – and now Rod Stewart has revealed that Theresa May has the same effect on him.

In an exclusive – if politically incorrect – interview with The Mail on Sunday’s Event magazine today, the veteran rocker describes the Prime Minister as a ‘fair piece’ with a great pair of legs.

Sir Rod, 72, says: ‘She’s a fair piece, mate. She does show a bit of leg, which I like. I’ve seen a picture of her when she was at Oxford and I’m telling you, she was a fair piece. Trust me, I know about these things.’

He insists his admiration for Mrs May extends to her personality too. The thrice-married singer says: ‘She seems genuine. She’s believable. I was reading about how in love she was with her husband when they first met, and that it was genuine love. I liked that, it’s human.’

Sir Rod, who had a 1977 hit with Hot Legs, is also a fan of Mrs May’s policies, explaining that ‘she sounds like a Prime Minister’ – but he pours scorn on Jeremy Corbyn’s ‘last-minute bloody pledges… I’ve heard it all before’.

Sir Rod was knighted last year, and in the interview he says he cannot understand why fellow musicians such as David Bowie turned down honours. He adds: ‘It’s the British people that give it to you; it’s not the Royal Family.’

Wake up, Theresa, I think I’ve got something to say to you... which is that you may be PM , Mrs May, but you’re also ‘a fair piece’. Was there ever a guy who rode his luck like Rod Stewart? From the festival fumble that inspired Maggie May to his VERY refreshed live TV appearance, our naughtiest knight confesses all

Never mind Maggie May, let’s talk about Theresa May.

The summer festival season is upon us, a General Election is imminent and Sir Rod Stewart is in a most mischievous mood.

He has been chatting about his forthcoming headline appearance at the Isle of Wight Festival, reminiscing about his beatnik youth, and how he lost his virginity in a ‘little triangle tent’ at the Beaulieu Jazz Festival aged 16 – an event that inspired the mega-hit Maggie May – when his train of thought is derailed by a passing mention of the Prime Minister.

‘She seems genuine,’ Stewart rasps softly. ‘She’s believable. I was reading about how in love she was with her husband when they first met, and that it was genuine love. I liked that, it’s human.

From the festival fumble that inspired Maggie May to his VERY refreshed live TV appearance, our naughtiest knight confesses all

‘She sounds like a Prime Minister. We know how the election is going to go here, and that’s how it should go. Unless there’s a ridiculous turnaround, I can’t see how Corbyn’s going to pull it out. All these last-minute bloody pledges that he’s going to tax the rich and do this and that, I’ve heard it all before.’

But the political question that seems to be troubling Stewart most is this: Theresa May, do ‘ya’ think she’s sexy?

‘She’s a fair piece, mate,’ the 72-year-old tells me with expert authority. ‘She does show a bit of leg, which I like.

‘I’ve seen a picture of her when she was at Oxford and I’m telling you, she was a fair piece. Trust me, I know about these things.’

Stewart has sold more than 100 million albums, rocked a thousand stadiums with hits including Maggie May, You Wear It Well, I Don’t Want To Talk About It, Sailing, Tonight’s The Night and Baby Jane, he’s had three wives, eight kids and is estimated to be worth £160 million.

Dressed in a striking checked jacket, skinny cords, work boots and a stylish gold tie, there’s never a dull moment with Rod Stewart. His hair, as ever, is up for it.

Sir Rod has taken a liking to Prime Minister Theresa May, and says she was rather attractive in her Oxford days (right)

Although we have met this afternoon in a vast, swanky suite at London’s Langham Hotel, he has elected to conduct the interview in the en-suite walk-in wardrobe off the master bedroom.

Regardless of the cramped conditions, Stewart is feeling unusually expansive.

Later, he will natter happily about Elton John, Ed Sheeran, Madonna, Bob Dylan and David Beckham, and relive the disappointment of missing out on Woodstock and Live Aid. He’ll also set the record straight about being ‘refreshed as a fart’ on live TV, and his concerns about the booze.

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There is also the small matter of his knighthood. Two summers ago we were sitting in the forecourt of Stewart’s beloved Wood House in Essex as he prepared to put the property, with its full-sized football pitch, on the market for £7.1 million and move a few miles down the road to Durrington House (£4.6 million, plus extensive renovations).

The new place, he cheerily reports today, is ‘gorgeous, I’ve just built a seven-a-side AstroTurf pitch.’

That morning, as he drank his coffee, Stewart expressed an unexpected desire to become a knight of the realm. ‘I’d love to have one but I can’t think too much about it,’ he said. But some guys have all the luck, and Roderick David Stewart is now a ‘Sir’.

Prince William hosted the investiture, not Prince Charles, of whom Stewart is ‘a big fan’, nor indeed the Queen. ‘I would have liked the Queen to have done it, bless her,’ he admits. ‘You never know who’s going to do it. I’m just pleased I got it.

Sir Rod Stewart and Penny Lancaster during a reception and awards ceremony at the Royal Academy of Arts London

‘I actually bumped into the Queen that night. They were having a do at the Royal Academy of Arts that I was invited to because I’m a big collector. She was there, and she said, “You were knighted today. Who did it?” I said, “William, Ma’am.” She said, “Did he make a good job of it?” I said, “He certainly did, Ma’am. Thank you very much.”’

He rubs his hands together in the manner of a man who has won life’s lottery.

‘I can’t understand why people like John Lennon and Bowie would turn down a knighthood,’ he puzzles. ‘Because it’s the British people that give it to you; it’s not the Royal Family, it’s an honour from the public. There’s a committee. People write in – your fans – and the committee look at it. Then they say, “Why not? We’ve had enough letters about Rod Stewart. Let’s look into his background and make sure he’s paid his taxes.”’

Here he can’t resist cupping a hand to his mouth and stage-whispering ‘David Beckham’, who was reportedly refused a knighthood over irregularities in his tax affairs.

Sir Rod arises excitedly to demonstrate the steps that must be rehearsed meticulously prior to being dubbed a knight.

In the event, Stewart completed the walk-up perfectly, then broke with royal protocol by giving the prince a two-fisted handshake.

‘And I closed off the conversation,’ he groans. ‘You’re not meant to do that. He was talking to me, and I said, “Thank you very much then,” and I left. I don’t know why I did that. He was still talking and I’m going, “Great, cheers, I’m off now.”’

Nonetheless, Stewart celebrated in time-honoured fashion. ‘I got pi**ed at lunchtime, and then I tried to get pi**ed in the evening, but I fell asleep on the job, so to speak.’ He grins wearily. ‘I’m not as young as I used to be.’

I tell Stewart that it doesn’t take a trained physician to detect a recurrent drinking theme in his life of late.

ROD'S KIND OF FESTIVAL? FIVE STAR!

TENT OR FIVE-STAR HOTEL?

‘I’ve done tents. I lived in a tent when I was a beatnik. So it’s a five-star hotel.’

WELLIES OR FLIP-FLOPS?

‘I don’t make a habit of wearing either, to be honest. I like a nice shoe.’

BEEF BURITTO OR VEGGIE CURRY?

‘Veggie curry. But if I’m singing, I don’t like to do anything that’s risky on the chilli front.’

DOWNPOUR OR HEATWAVE?

‘I don’t mind the rain. We played Twickenham stadium in a downpour and I went on with an umbrella I got out of the audience.’

A PINT OF FOAMING ALE OR A RUM & COKE?

‘Both probably, but always a rum and coke before taking to the stage.’

ROCK STAGE OR DANCE TENT?

‘Rock stage. The wife would be in the dance tent!’

FRENCH DJ DAVID GUETTA OR ARTY CANADIAN BAND ARCADE FIRE (who also play THE ISLE OF WIGHT festival)?

‘I like both of them – particularly Arcade Fire.’

STRANGEST THING THROWN AT YOU ON STAGE?

‘I kicked a football into the audience in Dortmund, and someone threw it back with such venom it nearly took one of the backing singer’s teeth out.’

VIP LAVATORY OR AL FRESCO LONG-DROP TOILET

‘Al fresco. When I walk around my garden I never go back to the house – I pee in the bushes.’

WILD AFTER-SHOW PARTY OR NICE LIE DOWN?

‘We’ll probably have a party on the helicopter on the way home.’

‘I do like a drink,’ he chuckles unapologetically. ‘I must be honest. I love it. But I can’t drink pints any more. I go down the pub and I struggle with one pint of beer, so I drink white wine. Not by the pint, obviously.

‘I have three reasonable glasses every night, unless I’m sick. I have a great chef, and I can’t drink a glass of water with a great meal.’

Does the venerable entertainer ever worry that he might be drinking too much?

‘Yes!’ he shouts with comical impatience, but there is a distinct note of seriousness in the fine-grain voice. ‘I have regular blood tests and scans on my liver and kidneys. I had one last week. Cameras up my bum and down my throat, the works; all clear, thank God.

‘But we’re all susceptible. ‘I’m not getting any younger. I’m 72. We’re all going to go over sooner or later, but there seems to have been a bit of a cluster of people going over recently: Bowie, Prince, George Michael, all in a couple of years.

Stewart is fired up about the Isle of Wight Festival, on which he will descend in a 19-seater helicopter, with ‘the full tribe’, including his young sons Alastair, 12, and Aiden, six

‘The Stones are still with us. Mick’s here, and Keith, just about. Ronnie’s funny; I haven’t heard from him for ages. He’s had these two kids, and that’s it, he’s gone off, over the horizon. Not a dicky bird.’

Stewart didn’t see Bob Dylan’s famous Isle of Wight show in 1969 (‘too expensive’) but he is delighted that his teen hero (‘I listened to his first album non-stop, learnt every song’) was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature this year.

‘Bang in order,’ he declares. ‘Completely deserved. Would’ve been nice if he’d have shown up to collect it but some people are like that.’

As a Dylan-esque beatnik in the Sixties with an acoustic guitar and a two-man tent on his back, Stewart was a regular festival attendee.

He and a dozen mates ‘who didn’t have a pot to p*** in’ crawled through a sewerage pipe to gain free access to the Beaulieu Festival in 1961, where young Rod, presumably having had a wash, duly lost his virginity to ‘a larger, older lady who chatted me up in the beer tent’ to the distant strains of Acker Bilk.

Stewart later commemorated the episode in Maggie May, although he says the running time of the song, which the singer thought ‘went on a bit’, lasted longer than the incident that inspired it.

‘It was all over in 20 seconds,’ he says sheepishly, running a hand through his drooping rooster hairdo.

Woodstock, too, was a let-down for Stewart. Having toured the States to great acclaim as vocalist with the Jeff Beck Group, the bluesy Brits were poised to play the mother of all festivals in 1969.

‘We were all in New York, ready to do Woodstock the next day,’ Rod remembers. ‘Then Jeff supposedly heard that the gardener was having it off with his old lady, so he went home. Now, I don’t know if that’s true or not, but that was the rumour that came back from his managers and the roadies. He just disappeared.’

Stewart missed out on Live Aid in 1985 as well due to a scheduling conflict, and is unaware of the rumour that he was down, at one point in the concert’s planning, to perform a duet with Madonna in Philadelphia.

‘That would’ve been interesting,’ he laughs. ‘I’d like to have done ‘I Could Have Danced All Night (But My Wheelchair’s Sprung A Puncture)’ with her. That would’ve been a good one.’

Stewart is fired up about the Isle of Wight Festival, on which he will descend in a 19-seater helicopter, with ‘the full tribe’, including his young sons Alastair, 12, and Aiden, six.

‘I’m fully here for these two boys,’ he acknowledges proudly. ‘We do everything together. When my two eldest (Kimberly, 37, and Sean, 36) were young, I was still trying to build my career, so I didn’t have any option but to go out and tour.

‘Of course, the wives say, “You weren’t there for them.” But I say, “You knew what you were marrying. You like the lifestyle, but I’ve got to go out and earn it. So you shouldn’t have married me, or you shouldn’t have had a child with me.” Now I look at the kids’ schedules, and everything works around their holidays. One of my boys is playing cricket now, and he cried this morning because I couldn’t go and watch him. He said, “Dad, you promised…”

He may have bawled like a wee bairn when Celtic beat Barcelona back in 2012, but how does he explain his bizarre appearance at the Scottish Fifth Round Cup draw in January, where he seemed to be in an advanced state of refreshment?

‘Refreshed as a fart,’ he giggles. ‘Oh, I’d had a couple of drinks. It was Airdrie’s ground, and this guy kept saying, “Look, you’ve got to go down now. We’ve got to do the draw, it’s nearly the end of the game.” Then Celtic scored. So with that, and after a few drinks, I was as high as a kite by the time I got down there. I said to the Sky girl, “I don’t think this is going to be a normal draw.”

‘But you know the great thing? The Scottish Football Association actually thanked me. So did the sponsors. They said, “It’s gone around the world. Everybody’s looking at it.”’

Stewart takes a sip of mineral water, – Highland Spring, of course – and reveals that despite being struck down by a near-fatal viral infection last month, his ‘dear friend’ Sir Elton is making a steady recovery and has been texting him.

‘He’s not been feeling great so I texted him the other day,’ Stewart says. ‘I said, “Don’t bother to text back unless you feel like it.” But he did text to congratulate my lad on his hockey. [Rod’s son Liam, 22, from his marriage to Rachel Hunter, had scored his first international goal representing Great Britain in the ice hockey world championship.] ‘It made Liam’s day, I can tell you.’

Stewart has been impressed by the backseat role Elton has taken in the career of Ed Sheeran, who is signed to his Rocket Music management company.

‘Old Ginger Boll***s, I call him,’ Stewart caws with characteristic charm. ‘He’s probably the most unlikely-looking pop star you could ever imagine. He’s not a beauty, that’s for sure. But he’s fantastic, you can’t take anything away from him.’

As a Dylan-esque beatnik in the Sixties with an acoustic guitar and a two-man tent on his back, Stewart was a regular festival attendee

He also approves of Harry Styles, who could be considered a Rod for the modern age, having left his band, One Direction, to go it alone, much like Stewart did with The Faces in 1971.

‘I love that new song [Sign Of The Times] he’s done,’ the older songwriter enthuses. ‘I wish him well. He’s proved he can keep his head well already but I think he’s a different breed to what we were back then,’ he adds sagely. ‘I don’t think he’s much of a druggie, I don’t think he drinks a lot. Certainly not like we did. Jesus Christ!’

Buttoning his jacket and checking for his wallet, Stewart recalls how touched he had been that the first person to text him when his knighthood was announced was his old piano-playing pal from Pinner, Elton.

‘It read, “Who would have thought that a couple of north London tarts like us would become knights?” Stewart hoots, theatrically straightening his tie knot and heading for the hotel lobby.